''The Hercules Text'' is a 1986 science fiction novel by American writer

Jack McDevitt Jack McDevitt (born April 14, 1935) is an American science fiction author whose novels frequently deal with attempts to make contact with alien races, and with archaeology or xenoarchaeology. Most of his books follow either superluminal pilot ...

. It tells the story of a message of intelligent extraterrestrial origin received by

SETI Seti or SETI may refer to: Astrobiology * SETI, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. ** SETI Institute, an astronomical research organization *** SETIcon, a former convention organized by the SETI Institute ** Berkeley SETI Research Cent ...

scientists. ''The Hercules Text'' was nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award in 1986. Science fiction author

Michael Swanwick Michael Swanwick (born November 18, 1950) is an American list of fantasy authors, fantasy and List of science-fiction authors, science fiction author who began publishing in the early 1980s. Writing career Swanwick's fiction writing began w ...

said, in an overview of McDevitt's work, "Jack's first novel, ''The Hercules Text'', appeared in 1986 as an Ace Special, putting him in the august company of such luminaries as

William Gibson William Ford Gibson (born March 17, 1948) is an American-Canadian speculative fiction writer and essayist widely credited with pioneering the science fiction subgenre known as cyberpunk. Beginning his writing career in the late 1970s, his ear ...

Kim Stanley Robinson Kim Stanley Robinson (born March 23, 1952) is an American science fiction writer best known for his ''Mars'' trilogy. Many of his novels and stories have ecological, cultural, and political themes and feature scientists as heroes. Robinson has ...

, and

Lucius Shepard Lucius Shepard (August 21, 1943 – March 18, 2014) was an American writer. Classified as a science fiction and fantasy writer, he often leaned into other genres, such as magical realism. Career Shepard was a native of Lynchburg, Virginia, wher ...

. It was a good book."

Plot summary

The story emphasizes the various characters' reactions to the event, according to their specific scientific backgrounds. Examples include a priest's speculations on the implications for religion, a psychologist's theorizing about the aliens' psyches, the scientists' consideration of the implications of the new knowledge for their own specialties, and the president's concern for the implications for national defense. The novel is set in an ongoing

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

scenario. Unlike typical first contact stories, there is no dialogue between the senders of the message and mankind, as the received radio signals have traveled through space for one and a half million years.

The extraterrestrial message

The message is received with a large

radio telescope A radio telescope is a specialized antenna (radio), antenna and radio receiver used to detect radio waves from astronomical radio sources in the sky. Radio telescopes are the main observing instrument used in radio astronomy, which studies the r ...

, the fictional Hercules Array, which was built on the

far side of the Moon The far side of the Moon is the hemisphere of the Moon that is facing away from Earth, the opposite hemisphere is the near side. It always has the same surface oriented away from Earth because of synchronous rotation in the Moon's orbit. C ...

. It is later discovered that the message was sent with an artificial

pulsar A pulsar (''pulsating star, on the model of quasar'') is a highly magnetized rotating neutron star that emits beams of electromagnetic radiation out of its Poles of astronomical bodies#Magnetic poles, magnetic poles. This radiation can be obse ...

built by the alien race. This pulsar with the name ''

Althea Althea () is an English female given name. It is a variation of the Greek name '' Althaea'' (Αλθαια), which may be related to Greek ''althos'' ("healing"). Richard Lovelace used the name in a poem (" To Althea, from Prison") that John M ...

'' has been known by the scientists for years. It was believed to be a normal pulsar. However, what made it special was its almost perfectly regular interval between the observed pulses. One day, some of the pulses suddenly fail to appear. This incident draws more attention to this particular pulsar, as the newly discovered gaps show a remarkable pattern. The first gap consists of one missing pulse, the second of two missing pulses and the third gap consists of four missing pulses. The following gaps also consist of numbers representing

powers of 2 A power of two is a number of the form where is an integer, that is, the result of exponentiation with number two as the base and integer as the exponent. In the fast-growing hierarchy, is exactly equal to f_1^n(1). In the Hardy hi ...

(2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, ...). The transmission of these numbers goes on for a couple of days until the pulsar falls completely silent. The silence lasts for several weeks, until it breaks again. This time, not just a simple sequence of numbers is received by the Hercules Array. Now, a very large and complex amount of binary data is sent from somewhere close to Althea. Scientists are able to decipher this data. It consists of several mathematical and physical formulae and simple graphical information. Later, more complex information is found, e.g., parts of the sender's

DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid (; DNA) is a polymer composed of two polynucleotide chains that coil around each other to form a double helix. The polymer carries genetic instructions for the development, functioning, growth and reproduction of al ...

, schematics for very advanced technology, philosophical texts or poems.

Publication history

''The Hercules Text'' has been rewritten by Jack McDevitt, before being re-published in the year 2000 as part of the two-novel-book ''Hello Out There'' (). The story received some changes, taking into account the end of the Cold War and some technical developments such as the

Hubble Space Telescope The Hubble Space Telescope (HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the Orbiting Solar Observatory, first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most ...

and the Internet.

References

External links

The Hercules Text
at Worlds Without End {{DEFAULTSORT:Hercules Text 1986 American novels 1986 science fiction novels American science fiction novels Novels by Jack McDevitt Ace Books books Debut science fiction novels 1986 debut novels Science fiction about first contact Search for extraterrestrial intelligence in literature Locus Award–winning works

Plot summary

The extraterrestrial message

Publication history

See also

References

External links